But there were also some really awesome big prizes available including a million IHG points, a home theater system, some big gift cards, or trips to Paris and New York. Since this was more or less a sweepstakes, IHG and their fulfillment company, Hello World, were committed to providing a list of the winners for the big prizes.

Congrats to the big winners! I am both jealous of you all and thankful that I don’t have to pay the tax bill on some of these prizes — the Paris trip was valued at over $23,000! Holy cow.

Interestingly, the one million IHG point package had an approximate retail value of $5,000, meaning that IHG values their points at $0.005 or a half cent each, precisely the same as we do here at OMAAT. How often do Ben and a hotel chain (or airline) publicly agree on the value of their points?

Maybe next year….

Bottom Line

Even though nobody on our team cracked the winners board, I’m quite happy with how we did. I know there are a few folks still trying to convince IHG and Hello World to pony up, but for the most part, I think they did a surprisingly good job with this promotion. I hope they run something like it again next winter.

So how many names do you recognize? Certainly we’ve got a few OMAAT readers on the list, right?

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About TravisTravis has been playing in the world of miles and points for over a decade. At one time or another he has held status on just about every major domestic airline and hotel program. He has visited all 50 US states and over 50 countries. Nowadays he travels almost exclusively with his wife and three young children.

I won 3 grand prizes from 3 airlines within 12 months (Oct 2014 – Sep 2015)–economy/premium economy flights for 2 and hotel nights from airberlin, All Nippon Airways and Lufthansa. As a DL PM, I got to try non-SkyTeam airlines. No cheating here–photo contests and pure luck on sweepstakes. I only had to pay flight taxes on ANA and then federal tax on the overall prizes since the ANA sweepstake was sponsored by their NYC office. No tax at all on AB and LH as their contests were global and sponsored by the German offices. But the taxes and other expenses were still worth it as the two German prizes included special / historical events. I probably should write my own travel blogs about these. I’ve also won other small prizes from EVA, Air New Zealand, Lufthansa, Lufthansa Cargo, Swiss Air, Austrian Airlines…etc. Mostly Star Alliance airlines. Maybe I should jump ship from ST to *A.

I also won an Arnold Palmer Invitational trip to Orlando and since the $5000 cash prize would have been eaten up by exorbitant taxes, and the fact that Orlando is a lame destination, I passed on the trip.

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Meet The Team

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